Searching Roots

I've been busy busy the last week or so. Not much stitching here, but doing many other things instead. I decided some more painting was in order so have been a wee busy with that. I painted the hallway last week and plan to paint the kitchen this week. Mike started and finished up our bedroom and another room downstairs that I plan to put another bed in for when we have guests. Now the entire downstairs is finished and after I pick up some more paint I'll finish up the upstairs.



He was off on Friday so he and I spent the day out. We usually do that when the kids are at school. We either go out to breakfast or lunch and pal around for a while. We had a little shopping to do and while we were out browsing, my beloved bought this beautiful jewelry armoire for me. Isn't it gorgeous?! It was his idea and at 75% off I couldn't refuse. I just love it and it's huge! There's tons of room in it! Not only is it holding all of my jewelry (and I have a lot!) it's also holding all of my scarves and gloves and there's still more room :). The best part is, it goes with our bedroom furniture perfectly.



While we were out I took the sampler I just finished to the framers. He does beautiful work and I can't wait to see it framed. It's supposed to be ready by Feb. 6th. I opted for the museum quality archival glass because I hope this sampler will last much much longer than I will. I do hope I last really really long though..LOL!




So besides painting I've been busy digging up my roots. I have a chart from Lavender & Lace called Mother's Tree that I've been wanting to stitch for a really long time. My friend, Laura got the chart for Christmas and has already started charting out the names and dates of the mothers for her tree. That got me to thinking that I should too and maybe we could work on it together. I have the names and birth dates for 5 generations but was hoping for at least 6 or 7. My mom loves genealogy and has been a member of ancestry.com for a while now. They have a 2 week free trial going on so Mike suggested that I sign up, get what I need, and then cancel at the end of the 2 week trial. I'll most likely do that but the thing is, it has intrigued me beyond belief and I don't want to cancel it. I will because I don't want to pay for it, but I don't wanna. I've made this ginormous family tree and want to see how many more branches I can add to it. I got sidetracked working on the info for my Mother's Tree when leaves kept popping up on my dad's side. To make a really really long story short, on my dad's side, I've gotten all the way back to 1690. In the process I've also found all kinds of documents for a lot of these people. Birth, marriage, & death info as well as all kinds of war draft cards, pension records, tons of stuff! Now here's a really exciting thing....on my dad's side, my 6th generation grandfather fought in the American Revolution and was a Flag Bearer for George Washington in the Continental Army. How neat is that?! That got me to thinking for a while that I might want to become a member of DAR. They have a free Patriot look up service so I submitted all of his info just to be sure. I got a quick reply back confirming everything I thought. I'm still thinking about applying. I know I will at some point, I just don't know if the right time is now. The application process is very long and involved. Pretty exciting stuff! I can't believe how many branches are on my family tree. At this point I'd be shocked if I wasn't related to most of you! LOL!